This invention relates to telecasting systems and particularly to telecasting systems that provide video programs which may be viewed on conventional televisions or other suitable video monitors. More particularly, this invention is directed toward a telecasting service that provides video programs upon viewer demand, and which includes an interactive interface for facilitating viewer selection of video programs.
Television viewing has become an increasingly popular pastime over the past several decades. Commercial and public broadcasting stations and cable networks provide viewers with entertainment programming, educational programming, as well as programming dedicated to news, weather, and commercial advertising. But programming variety is not the only reason for the popularity of television--the convenience of television also contributes substantially to its popularity. Indeed, nearly every household in the United States is equipped with at least one (and commonly several) television sets. It is not surprising that many people take advantage of the convenience of television instead of wasting valuable time seeking out other forms of entertainment.
Early telecasting systems relied almost exclusively on aerial transmissions to deliver video programs to the viewers' television sets. Many difficulties led to the demise of aerial broadcasting as the dominant video delivery system. For example, the quality of aerial broadcasts varies considerably depending on atmospheric conditions and the viewer's geographic location. But more importantly, aerial broadcasting systems could not keep up with viewer demands for increased variety, because of the limited bandwidth available for aerial transmissions.
In response to the difficulties associated with aerial broadcasting systems, cable telecasting systems have been developed, and they have become the telecasting systems of choice in areas where they are available. Cable telecasting systems provide consistent, high quality transmissions of video programming. They also offer greater variety than aerial systems because more bandwidth is available on cable networks. For example, whereas most viewers receive only a few aerial programming channels, typical cable telecasting systems currently provide 30-75 different programming channels, and systems with even greater channel capacity have been launched in certain areas.
In most cable telecasting systems, a central telecasting facility is coupled to the subscribing viewers' television sets through a communication network. Most current networks use coaxial cable as the communication medium. However, an increasing number of cable telecasting systems are migrating to fiber optic networks. Fiber optic networks offer substantially greater bandwidth than coaxial networks, which has created the opportunity for even more programming variety than is currently available. Indeed, a cable telecasting system based on a fiber optic network can support hundreds of programming channels, as compared to the typical few dozen channels offered by coaxial cable-based systems.
The increased program variety offered by modern cable telecasting systems is advantageous because it gives the viewer a wider selection of video programs to choose from at any given time. However, no matter how many different programs are available, the viewer's selection has to date been limited to the programs that are being exhibited at any particular time. The viewer thus has been constrained by a predetermined program schedule, which may be undesirable in some situations. For example, television viewers are frequently forced to choose between watching a program of particular interest or engaging in an activity that temporally conflicts with the program of interest. Of course, the viewer may choose to record the program, but this is often a cumbersome task, especially if a video recorder is not immediately available.
Many viewers overcome scheduling conflicts by renting video programs. Although video rental establishments typically offer a wide variety of programs to choose from, the process of renting video programs is rather inconvenient. As a result, a large number viewers may forego viewing a particular program of interest until it is scheduled on one of the program channels--which may not occur until sometime in the distant future, if at all.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a demand telecasting service which allows a viewer to select a video program from a plurality of available programs, and which telecasts the selected program substantially at the time the viewer makes the program selection.
It would also be desirable to provide a telecasting service that includes an interactive interface which allows a viewer to review a list of available video programs and which facilitates the viewer's selection of a desired program.
It would further be desirable to provide a telecasting service that allows a viewer to preview a segment of a video program before viewing the entire video program.
It would even further be desirable to provide a telecasting service that distinguishes subscribers from non-subscribers, which allows even non-subscribers to preview a segment of a video program, but allows only subscribers to view the entire video program.